Genma Saotome (Continuum-72391865)
Genma Saotome (早乙女玄馬, Saotome genma[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Japanese ?]) is the father of the title character, Ranma Saotome. He is married to Nodoka Saotome and is a former fellow student of Happosai's along with his old friend and prospective in-law, Soun Tendo. Genma can translate into "dark or mysterious horse". Biography Genma is a master of Anything Goes Martial Arts. During the time when Genma took Ranma on a decade-long training voyage to improve their martial arts skills, he insisted on going to Jusenkyo in China - a place which he believed to be a training ground. However, because of Genma's ignorance of the Chinese language, he did not realize that the ground was unfrequented because it was cursed. Genma realized all too late the mistake he made, after his son knocked him into a cursed spring during this fateful training session. Genma was knocked into Shonmaoniichuan (熊猫溺泉 Xióngmāoníquán), the Spring of Drowned Panda. Due to the nature of the Jusenkyo curse, a victim who falls into the spring is cursed to turn into who or whatever drowned there when doused with cold water. Thus, whenever Genma is splashed with cold water, he becomes a giant panda. Hot water, as with the rest of the Jusenkyo-cursed characters, can change him back into human form. Despite the fact that he and his son were cursed, Genma still brought Ranma back to Japan to fulfill an agreement that he had made with his longtime friend and fellow martial artist Soun Tendo: Ranma would marry one of Soun's daughters and carry on the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. Personality and Traits "I find little glory in brow-beating your son to make him despise any show of human weakness in himself or others, nor in shaming him with words to make him hate you enough to fight full-out as though you were blood enemies instead of son and father. You berate him for his curse and you call it shameful, but the shame was with you for inflicting it upon him in the first place. And...on top of everything else...this...travesty you call a training method..." Triesteto Genma Saotome Genma follows his own interpretation of the Anything Goes Martial Arts code, which isn't exactly all that virtuous itself to begin with. Though he himself claims to be a model martial artist, and makes a point of telling Ranma about the right thing to do, it is evident that he does not practice what he preaches. He mostly concerns himself with food, generally looks out for himself, and is an occasional coward when it comes to confrontations with Happposai. When confronted with wrongdoings that he has committed, Genma typically either attempts to justify them through pleading or ridiculous logic, or else tries to either flee from or ignore the problems he has wrought. It is debatable as to whether Genma is so much "evil" as he is "stupid". While definately selfish and cowardly, he usually does not act with deliberate malice. His primary flaws seem to be a strange combination of impulsiveness and stubbornness; Genma can set his goals in a whimsical fashion, and then will immediately start trying to pursue them without further thought and long beyond the point when common sense would suggest he stop. This is exemplified by the matter of Ranma learning the Nekoken; it speaks depths about Genma's character that he would take one look a single page of a training method and immediately force his increasingly-traumatised son to undergo it four times before finally deigning to look at the next page, which warns he should never have started it in the first place. Despite being cursed, Genma actually seems to like his panda form and freely goes about in public in it. He regularly uses it in attempts to circumvent attention when in danger of being taken to task by others by transforming into it and playing with a tire or ball. If he cannot avoid the problem, he often foists the obligation onto Ranma, which usually creates even more chaos. Although pandas cannot talk, Genma is able to communicate his thoughts while in this form by writing on wooden signs (more common in the manga), which he sometimes uses as weapons against Ranma when he is annoyed with his son. Genma's tendency to think both only in the short-term and in regards to himself alone is perhaps the primary sticking point in their relationship, with Ranma begrudging all of the trouble he is forced to endure because of Genma's mistakes. Powers and Abilities As a former student of the grandmaster martial artist Happosai and the founder of the Saotome Style Anything Goes Martial Arts, Genma is an extremely proficient martial artist. While Genma is usually too lazy or cowardly to show it, his full arsenal of special techniques would make him one of the most powerful fighters in the world if he ever used them in combination. Though he looks hefty, especially in his cursed form, Genma is actually in extremely good shape. Like his son, he has great physical strength, enabling him to punch others a great distance or easily shatter boulders. He possesses enough speed to have kept up with Ranma for some time even after the latter's supersonic Amaguriken training. Genma is also surprisingly agile, capable of powerful leaps. Despite his girth and age, he can withstand great impacts without damage, like falling hundreds of meters into solid stone. His panda form is stronger still (most likely because bears are naturally stronger than humans). As the creator of the Umisenken and the Yamasenken styles Genma is the only one who is a master of both and is extremly proficient in them. Category:Continuum-72391865